Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fireplaces in general and more specifically to those used in mobile homes. It is well known that when material is burned in a fireplace, oxygen for combustion is drawn from the room in which the fireplace is located. The burning material sets up a draft which draws air from the room. The air in the combustion process creates smoke and heated gases which rise through the chimney of the fireplace to the outside of the building or enclosure. If the room in which the fireplace is located is tightly sealed, insufficient air may be available to produce adequate combustion and the fireplace will smoke. In some cases, if the draft is insufficient, the burning materials may merely smolder and in the process produce dangerous or lethal gases such as carbon monoxide. Other material such as charcoal briquets consume great quantities of oxygen during the combustion process and may produce dangerously low levels of oxygen within a tightly sealed room.
Modern mobile homes are specifically designed to close very tightly. Burning materials in a fireplace inside such an enclosure could produce oxygen starvation and thus suffocate occupants within the mobile home. It is thus desirable that the combustion chamber of a fireplace in a mobile home be isolated from the room itself and that a separate souce of air be supplied to the combustion chamber.